The Way of the Disillusioned ‘Sensible Man’
There is the Fool’s Way and then there is the way of the disillusioned ‘Sensible Man’ of handling those things in life that lose their novelty.
Remember from Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis, when he wrote. “There was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality.”
“Now there are two wrong ways of dealing with this fact, and one right one.”
After discussing the fool’s way, C.S. Lewis went on.
“(2) The Way of the Disillusioned ‘Sensible Man’— He soon decides that the whole thing was moonshine. ‘Of course,’ he says, ‘one feels like that when one’s young. But by the time you get to my age you’ve given up chasing the rainbow’s end.’ And so he settles down and learns not to expect too much and represses the part of himself which used, as he would say, ‘to cry for the moon’. This is, of course, a much better way than the first, and makes a man much happier, and less of a nuisance to society. It tends to make him a prig (he is apt to be rather superior towards what he calls ‘adolescents’), but, on the whole, he rubs along fairly comfortably. It would be the best line we could take if man did not live for ever. But supposing infinite happiness really is there, waiting for us? Supposing one really can reach the rainbow’s end? In that case it would be a pity to find out too late (a moment after death) that by our supposed ‘common sense’ we had stifled in ourselves the faculty of enjoying it.”
Lewis, C. S. (2009-05-28). Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis Signature Classics) (p. 136). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Spoiler alert: The third way is the “Christian Way.” You’ll read about that in my next post.
As I type these words, I’m reminded of our church service this morning. It was one of those watershed moments when I couldn’t hold in my fear, my excitement, my anxiousness, my love, my brokeness, my passion, my desires and my tears.
This is a good day.
I look forward to telling you all about it when we meet again.
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